Film History

This course is an introduction to the history of cinema from 1895 to the present. In demonstrating how history energizes and complicates the movies, we will examine numerous film cultures and historical periods, including Hollywood silent cinema, Italian neo-realism, the French New Wave, recent films from Iran, and a variety of other film movements from different historical epochs and cultures. Screenings will feature movies such as Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion (1937), Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955), Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), and Sally Potter's Orlando (1992). Our aim is to establish a broad historical and global foundation for the understanding of film as a complex exchange between art, technology, politics, and economics.